


This is the end (my beautiful friend)

by alinewrites



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Post-Star Trek: Into Darkness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2013-10-21
Packaged: 2017-12-30 01:44:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1012541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alinewrites/pseuds/alinewrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After 5 years Kirk is back on Earth and is asked to grant an enemy one last favor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This is the end (my beautiful friend)

  
Kirk straightened his uniform, caught a glance of himself in the mirror and walked out of the elevator, trying to ignore the pounding of blood in his ears, trying to focus despite a lingering hangover. Two months of hard partying after five years spent cruising the most distant quadrants of the universe were after all a well-deserved retribution. Don’t be a fraud, Jim, no matter how beautiful the girls, how potent the drinks, you are getting bored. It’s about time you and the Enterprise get a new assignment. Feel useful and whole again. Your job defines you.  
  
On that he walked into Admiral Singis’ office with a confident stride.  
  
“Good evening, Captain Kirk,” Singis said. “I read from your report that you had some interesting adventures and… exotic meetings.”  
  
The uniform suited her; she looked younger than the others Kirk had dealt with before. “Yes Ma’am. Interesting and exotic.”  
  
She smiled and leaned forward, her dark eyes scrutinizing him. “And more than a little dangerous. I read here that we almost lost you, what, 5 times.”  
  
Kirk smiled. “But here I am, fully recovered, as is the ship. Thanks to my crew.”  
  
“Five years is a long time, Captain Kirk.” She said pensively, leaning back into her chair. “How much did it change you?”  
  
“I would say not at all, Ma’am. I am the same as I was five years ago."  
  
She nodded slowly, clearly unconvinced.  
  
She was right. Time had changed him. Every new world discovered, every new mistake, every new success, every new fight, every loss had changed him and everyone on board. Only the ship remained the same. He was no longer the very young man who had been reinstated as the captain of the Enterprise what felt like ages ago, although he still met him every day in the mirror. Sometimes he missed the boy – the unbridled eagerness; the violent passions, the hot-headed decisions. Not that he wasn’t able of those any longer but something had come into the way that held him back sometimes, forcing him into more balanced choices. What an old friend called maturity – he hated the word.  
  
“Unfortunately, Captain Kirk, I must interrupt your holidays.” The smile vanished from her lips. “You and your crew are required on board of the Enterprise in two weeks from now.” She smiled. “Once you are there you will receive the details of this new mission.”  
  
Confidential, potentially dangerous, exciting. He’d missed that.  
.  
“Make sure your crew is ready.” She rose. She was tall and slim, fit. A woman of power and duty. A Starfleet admiral, respected and well-liked, honest. Someone Kirk could respect. Someone who would not disappoint. “Before you leave though…” She said, hesitating.  
  
He waited as she pondered.  
  
“I had a request from a man who is about to die. He is asking for your visit as a last favour.”  
  
It took Kirk a couple of seconds to register the words. He stared at Singis. She explained patiently: “People in his situation are granted such things as a last meal, drinks, a smoke, a fix. He only requested a moment with you. It is up to you, of course, whether you will agree. I will not force such a decision on you.”  
  
Kirk took a deep breath. “Who is it?" He thought about it and frowned. "Is it Khan? I thought he had been executed a while ago. Even before I left.”  
  
Singis shook her head, looking slightly embarrassed. “Some among Starfleet thought it could be useful to keep him alive. I for once would have shot the man – or whatever he is - as soon as we’d caught him but my opinion does not always prevail. At least not immediately.”  
  
“He wants to see me? Why?”  
  
She shrugged, looking like she wanted to be done with it. “He didn’t tell. But if you have it in mind to agree to his request, I can have you transported from here right now.”  
  
Five years. Kirk had not forgotten the bastard. Other enemies had come and gone in his life of course but none of them quite as dangerous. Not as… fascinating. Khan. Well. Spock and Bones would deem it a very bad idea. “Yes.” He said. “I’ll go.”  
  
Where he was sent he had no idea. Far below the ground, of that he had no doubt. Was it Earth? Maybe, although it could have been the far edge of the universe. A security officer took charge, leading him down shadowed corridors. Cells on both sides, their walls raw rock, an invisible force field locking the prisoners inside. Prisoners? Kirk saw very few of them and the last floor was empty. The sound of their boots on the metallic stairs echoed darkly in his ears.  
  
“You have ten minutes,” the guard said. The sentence is to be carried immediately after you’re gone. He handed out a small device. “Press the button if you need help.”  
  
The cell was white and clean and very similar to the brig on the Enterprise – memories assaulted him. Khan was standing in front of him, his eyes down, obviously lost in thoughts. When he looked up, his eyes boring straight in his, Kirk felt like he was being punched in the guts. He had no time to dwell on that. Khan’s voice rose. “Captain Kirk,” he said in the soft baritone that reached deep into Kirk’s brain and guts. “Here you are.”  
  
Kirk came closer, his eyes on the worst criminal he had met, and the most confusing. He had not changed a bit, dressed in black fatigues and a tight sweater, his body as lean and unyielding as before, his eyes pale as ice. Only his hair was longer, less neatly trimmed. His mouth – unsmiling and hard despite its perfect sensuousness.  
  
“What the hell do you want from me, Khan?” Kirk asked, angry at the emotions the mere sight of the man raised inside him.  
  
The corners of Khan’s mouth lifted slightly, his eyes seemed to colour. “Do not look so alarmed, Kirk.”  
  
“I am not alarmed.”  
  
“Of course you are. I can feel it.” Khan looked so cool, so collected, that Kirk could have thought he was putting some lethal plan of his in motion. “I am going to die – they made up their mind, in the end.”  
  
“It’s about time,” Kirk said.  
  
That earned him a fleeting mocking smile. “It is, isn’t it? Only I felt like having a little conversation with someone a bit less stupid than those…” He gestured to the guard. Bringing his attention back to Kirk he said, “You look like you gained some confidence. Some…”  
  
Kirk took a step closer, his fists clenched. “If you say maturity I’ll have to hit you.”  
  
Khan laughed, obviously delighted. “Please! You would only hurt yourself, remember? Not to mention the force field. What I mean is I can see it on you. The experience. Time does that to you. And disillusion too. Losses. Failures. Those build us. They do.”  
  
Kirk felt something unfurl inside him. Pulling a stool that had been left there, he sat. “Have you turned into some sick kind of psychiatrist?”  
  
A smile again, and this new warmth in Khan’s cold cold eyes. Indulgence, amusement. “No. But I had my share of losses.” The smile vanished. Kirk remembered that Starfleet had decided to kill Khan’s crewmates. Remembered how much Khan had cared about them; how human he had looked then. “And failures. This..” Khan embraced the cell in one gesture. “Being the most spectacular of all.” When still, he had the stiffness of a statue. Only in action, Kirk remembered, did Khan have the feline grace, the lethal elegance of the tiger.  
  
“I do not care about dying. When you find yourself the only survivor of long forgotten times, with no hope of meeting another of your kind, you are as good as dead. Beside, I am tired of being poked at like a lab rat. I must have given more blood than anyone else in the past five years.”  
  
Kirk didn’t like to be reminded that he owed his life to this monster of a man, although it was easy, listening to him, to forget who he really was, listening to his soothing, melodious voice.  
  
“But there is something.” He said. “I want someone to know the exact truth of who I have been, what I have done and who my friends were. Apart from you I know no one. So I recorded my story and I will give it to you. You will finally get all the details you were so curious about.” He smiled at Kirk’s grimace. “Do not worry. I am a good story-teller.”  
  
“I do not want anything from you. I want you… annihilated.” Kirk said, his fists clenched.  
  
“Now now,” Khan said. “You are bad at lying. I know you are fascinated by me. And even if you are not, doesn’t your race pride itself on having some compassion for the sick and the dying? I am dying, Jim.”  
  
The use of his first name shook him like a blow. “Don’t you dare…”  
  
“And you are the closest thing to a friend I have in this universe.”  
  
“I-am-not-your-friend.” Jim realized he was shouting. His words echoed up and down the huge cave around the cells.  
  
Khan rolled his eyes. “My mistake. No, you are not. But you were… an interesting enemy, to say the least. So take it.” He held out his hand. “Please.”  
  
Kirk’s hand brushed against Khan’s capable, deadly fingers when he took the small data pad. He remembered those fingers crushing Marcus’ head. “I hope you burn in hell, Khan.” He said.  
  
“Oh, Kirk. Don’t be naïve. There is no such thing as hell. Only the same dark void that engulfs all of us in the end, good or evil. Now go,” Khan commanded. “Or do you want to witness my annihilation and make sure I am indeed dead? Although I have to warn you, it will be tedious. More like putting a sick dog to sleep and…”  
  
Kirk turned and walked away, unable to listen to one more word.  
  
The meeting remained a well-kept secret. Kirk locked the recording in a drawer of his desk – sometimes he thought of listening to it but the prospect of Khan’s voice echoing in his room made him sick – with rage, he thought. He refused to consider another reason to it. There would be no acknowledging how much that last meeting with Khan had affected him. He had no time for that.

tbc, maybe...


End file.
